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homelessness

Back in October 2018 I wrote this article, so I am not surprised one bit that another homeless person has died on our streets. Unless the government and the council act there are going to be more, this isn’t something unforeseen which is happening. We knew this was coming, we know there has been hundreds of homeless deaths on the streets of this country. Sadly there are going to be many, many, more.

Last week a homeless man was found dead on the streets of Corby, his name was John Holland. Unless we want this to become the new norm, it is imperative that the council act to avert any more homeless deaths this winter.

The Dying Homeless campaign recorded a minimum of 449 homeless deaths in the past year, with seven of those deaths being attributed to our county.

Unless the county and the government start taking immediate steps this figure is likely to increase, in the last year alone 43,140 families were accepted as homeless by their local authority. Rough sleeping has risen year on year for the past seven years, with homelessness charities claiming it has risen a whopping 169% since 2010!

The government put forward the Homeless Reduction Act 2018, which came into force in April – yet this clearly falls short, as the problem shows no signs of abating.

Northampton and the 20 or so local authorities in similar financial dire straits are clearly going to have problems with the financial commitments, yet the current approach is costing us millions already.

Wellingborough spent £1m on temporary accommodation last year, while councils in England spent a combined total of £937m.

There are huge sums of money being spent on putting a plaster on the problem, because our approach to helping the homeless is itself problematic.

It is time we went back to the drawing board and moved back to the basics, because unless there is a cultural shift in how we are helping the homeless, then it looks like huge sums of money are going to be wasted and people are going to continue to die.

There needs to be a more holistic approach to helping the homeless, purpose run and built accommodation that provides much more than shelter from the elements. Homeless people have a very complex set of needs which require specialist long term support. Unless we are working to address the underlying causes of homelessness, then no amount of temporary accommodation will solve the problem.

There are also barriers to seeking out help which can prevent the people in need getting what little help that is available. For example if a homeless person has a drug or alcohol problem they could be shut out from getting help, and mental health problems mean a homeless person may not be capable of seeking help at all.

In Northampton the task has fallen largely to the voluntary sector, yet these organisations can only do so much with the limited resources available to them.

We know these people are vulnerable, we know they are at risk, and if the authorities do not act to help them, we know some of them will die. Make no mistake the inaction of our authorities to protect and help the most vulnerable will mean they have blood on their hands.

It is time we start treating homeless people with dignity and respect, not judging them. Nobody should be living on the streets, and we should be doing everything we can to help those vulnerable members of our society who are

We are told protesting against Donald Trump’s state visit should be the biggest protest this country has ever seen, but why? Is Donald Trump’s visit the most important issue facing the people of this country? The answer is of course no, Trump is not more important than the dismantling of the NHS, the homeless epidemic, the Windrush scandal, Grenfell, the death caused by cuts, and a million and one other problems which are caused by our own government.

Donald Trump is a slimeball, a scumbag and an all round cunt, but what makes him so special? Is his brand of sexism worse than the fact austerity disproportionately attacks women? Or is his racism worse than the racism that gave us the windrush scandal? Is his neocon geopolitical war hard-on worse than Obama’s, or May’s?

Donald Trump is not the problem, the system is the problem – Trump is a symptom of that system, but what do we hope to achieve by protesting his visit? Is his visit worse than the other dictators and all round shit bags this country has hosted throughout the years?

Will protesting against Trump home the homeless on our streets, or put food in the bellies of those starving and struggling to survive?

Solidarity to the poor brothers and sisters of America fighting against Trump and all that he stands for, but we are locked in a life and death battle of our own, and instead of making that the biggest protest we have ever seen, instead of going after the system which allows men like Trump to thrive, we want to make it all about Trump.

We could remove Trump tomorrow, and it would not change a thing for this country (Or America), people will still be struggling, people will still be starving and we would still be ruled by a elite that doesn’t give a shit about us!

Go along, be a good liberal, give yourself a pat on the back and think you are opposing Trump’s bigotry, but don’t fool yourself in to thinking that the things Trump stand for, and the system he represents are not already normal here.

It is easy to get indignant and kick up a fuss about an issue that relatively will not impact you, but there are a lot of issues facing us which are far more important, and which warrant the biggest protest this country has ever.

Why are we not organising to make May resign? We should be organising to change this country, we should be organising to help the downtrodden and oppressed in our country, right now. Not wasting our time with hollow and empty gesture politics, which will serve little to no practical purpose to the people kicked in to the dirt by our government.

So no, I won’t go out to protest Trump’s visit, not because I agree or want to endorse his politics, but because I think we should be going after the system, corruption and the poverty which is all too real for the people of this country (and America).

Homelessness is all our problem, it is an issue that effects us all. Whether directly through being on the streets ourselves, or indirectly through the society which we call our own.

You would think a problem of this magnitude would require a society wide effort to solve. Yet time and again we have been left wanting, and for those suffering this societal blight, it just isn’t good enough.

Make no mistake homelessness is a dirty stain on our society, we can not call ourselves civilised while we have people struggling for the basic necessities of survival, we cannot call ourselves a civilised society and turn a blind eye to the suffering of those we see on the streets every day.

I wish I could say I was shocked at the news by Crisis which reported that homelessness is set to reach over half a million by 2041, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The government has failed, is failing, and will continue to fail when it comes to homelessness, and it can be for only one reason – they simply don’t care enough. Time and again charities and community groups are picking up the slack, frantically trying to put a plaster on a problem that has been festering for too long.

It is extremely hard to get accurate data on homelessness, it wouldn’t be surprising if this number was a rather conservative estimate. Regardless of the exact figures the trajectory is clear – homelessness is going to continue to rise. We can and do need to do more, it is an indictment of the failure of our society.

It is easy to think it could not happen to me, or it is not my problem but eight million people are only a pay day away from being on the street and unless you have a crystal ball that can see the future, you don’t know what is around the corner.

It is clear the government will not act on this issue, not unless we force them. There should be national outrage over this, our governments continue to fail the people in their care yet again.

How many groups of people can the Tories betray, how many people in our society have to be cruel victims of their heartless policies before enough is enough? One person suffering on the streets is too many and one thing is abundantly clear, if we do not take action now, hundreds of thousands of people are going to be suffering in the future.

On the 24th of July the CEO of the Hope Centre wrote on his blog an article entitled: “Why Hope charges for items like food and clothes.” In this article the CEO seeks to justify charging for these items, as well as selling donations on eBay and furthermore attacks organisations that give away things for free. You can find the full blog here: http://www.northamptonhopecentre.org.uk/sites/default/files/717%20CEO%20Blog.pdf

To sum up their strategy and their justification, they seek to impoverish the homeless in order to stop them buying drugs. Their reasoning is if they are spending money in the Hope Centre, they are not spending it on alcohol or drugs. That is clearly a win for the Hope Centre, after all they get to keep their users dependant on them while also being provided with a steady stream of income.

Is that an effective strategy to tackle drug and alcohol dependency among the homeless? Anyone who understands the nature of addiction would know that it comes first, food comes second. Going hungry to feed your addiction is always an option and If you have used all your money that you would spend on drugs or alcohol, what then? Well you do whatever it takes to get more, beg, steal, borrow and if you’re a woman that likely means prostitution.

Thus it doesn’t make much sense when they say they don’t want to ‘collude’ with drug and alcohol users, because if anything you are making the situation more hopeless for these people. Forcing them to do unsavoury things to maintain these addictions, while putting the blame on to them. It implies homelessness and their addiction is of their own choosing. If only they were a little bit better at handling their money they wouldn’t be homeless or addicts – this is the wrong mindset any organisation should adopt that seeks to engage and help the homeless.

Money is not a cause of addiction, that being the case taking it away from them isn’t going to solve the problem. Yes you may make it a tiny bit harder for them to get drink or drugs, and of course you would make them suffer more, or force them to take more drastic measures in order to access drink and drugs. But at the end of the day, unless they get the support they need, they are still going to be addicts.

For your reference here is a list of common reasons for substance abuse

Peer pressure

Boredom

As a way to deal with stress

Growing up in a home where alcohol and drug abuse is considered normal

behaviour

Self-medication to deal with mental illness

Relationship problems

Financial worries

Loss of a loved one

Those with low self-esteem may abuse substances in order to boost confidence

They also believe that charging for their service gives their users a level of responsibility – but clearly they are not responsible enough to have money. This point is contradictory, you say you want to give responsibility to these people, while at the same time saying they are not responsible enough to be trusted.

This of course generalises the homeless, while it is true that there are drug and alcohol problems within these communities, it doesn’t apply to all. With one of the primary factors for the abuse being the environment they find themselves in, that being the case I would like to know what body of evidence you are using in order to support this strategy.

You round off your argument by presenting an economic case for charging for your service, yet out of your 90k profits last year, you only made 7k from the canteen. Clearly you are not treading water to the point that providing these services for free would have a major impact on your operation.

Let’s look at the way you use donations – you like to sell them on Ebay in order to maximise profit, that is a very sound business approach but there are a few ethical concerns here. Are the people donating these items in good faith doing so on the understanding they are going to your users, and not on eBay? If so, then you are taking these things under false pretences. You sell off all the best stock, so why can’t a homeless person wear Prada or Gucci? You imply that homeless people shouldn’t be allowed to wear nice things.

That is a strange approach when you talk about giving them responsibility, having respect for yourself, having the opportunity to wear nice clothes – these things can make peoples day. If you don’t think they’re good enough to wear nice clothes, why should they think they are worth anything?

Finally you suggest that they can be choosy with their food, that they’re throwing their food away because they can go around the food banks. It’s a very shocking accusation, hunger is a very real problem for those on the street, and having access to basic food stuffs is a struggle. Yet the way you frame it, they are living the high life on free food. I’ve never witnessed a homeless banquet, and if like you say they are just throwing away the food they don’t like, wouldn’t they trade it, or sell it on? It’s nonsensical, and I’m sceptical of the proof that you have, outside of anecdotal evidence.

Is the strategy for change a positive one?

Having dealt with the fact money is not a primary motivator for drug and alcohol abuse, let’s examine the wider strategy. Firstly, I think it is extremely crass of you to use the recent tragic death of one of your users in to this argument, it is impossible to know if it was a cause and you use it to get emotive support.

So putting that to one side, let’s look at the issue here – is it wrong to give free things to the homeless community? I can turn this on its head and say is it right to financially benefit off the homeless community, because that is what charging them is doing – exploiting them. They have no where else to turn, they have very little and they are dependant on these services for help. Is taking their benefits, or their begging money away from them then going to help them get into a home, get off the streets and get the help they need? Unlikely, but it will continue to perpetuate a cycle of homelessness by keeping these people operating below the breadline.

If you are about change like you say you are I suggest you do something radical and innovative, instead of taking us back decades if not centuries on how we view and tackle the problems of homelessness and addiction.

For example

For the homelessness to have elected representation on the Hope Centre Board

For the service users of the Hope Centre to have a greater say in how the organisation operates, and greater control over the running of the centre

Draw up an inclusive strategy with the aid of the people you are seeking to help

Use a multi-agency response, instead of seeking to attack other organisations seeking to help the homeless – work in partnership with them.

I urge you to change the course of your organisation, I urge you to think about the language you are using, and the attitude you are adopting. Wouldn’t a better way to tackle homelessness be providing a supportive environment that helps tackle the underlying problems of these addictions? One that doesn’t judge these people for their problems, but seeks to engage with them and support them. With homelessness increasing in the town there is clearly a flaw in your strategy, so next time think, because there is another way.

One day campaigns and calls for Theresa May to sling it are great at galvanizing support, but if the next election isn’t within the next six months, we run the risk of running out of steam.

Words have power that is clear, but words and actions working in unison will lay the foundation for the kind of change we need to see in our society. Which is why it is unsustainable in the long run to keep up momentum indefinitely.

Why? Because if there are no results, people will grow bored, people drop out, and slowly but surely the momentum slows to a crawl before going in to reverse. We have momentum on our side, at the moment, and no doubt the Tories will be trying to delay until the winds change in their favour.

So what can we do to help sustain activity, to keep our momentum up?

We need to adopt a more community minded, grassroots approach to our campaigning – non traditional forms of campaigning which seek to build up networks within communities, and effect real change within them.

It’s great marching to end homelessness, or against the harsh reality of the cuts, those kind of public displays of peoples anger, and dissatisfaction with the system are integral but you hardly ever see immediate results.

Contrast a march against homelessness with a Labour led drive to support the homeless within their communities, to alleviate the harsh realities of the cuts. When you see that a homeless man is going to get a roof over his head, or isn’t going to go hungry that night, you see a direct return on your political capital.

When you are bringing your politics to life through your work in your community and help stop a family getting evicted, or put food on a single mothers table, so neither her or her child go hungry that night – you see results. Politics in action effecting change on a community level, which feeds back into a national narrative.

Not only this but it is through these networks of resistance that we can sustain momentum, we see small successes, thus keeping people engaged politically. While at the same time engaging with the people that a) need our help the most and b) we need to have a political voice c) providing the apparatus/network for future political work

We need to be radical, we need to be innovative. Combine the social, community and the political, and provide cross community solutions – you have a presence, you are fighting back at the system, and you’re carrying out practical politics.

History is littered with examples of it being successful, and it is a political necessity in this country already. People on the bread line can’t wait to the next election, a disabled person house bound due to cuts, cannot wait to the next election. The people who are suffering most cannot afford to wait, and we shouldn’t leave them behind.

While momentum is on our side, while we have the Tories on the run, it is the perfect opportunity to expand our political activity and get out into our communities supporting those in need, with our actions and deeds.

On benefits struggling to pay bills
We stand with you!
Single mother working two jobs
We stand with you!
Grieving over the austerity kills
We stand with you!
Victim of the callous cuts
We stand with you!
Home made cell
We stand with you!
Freezing to death
We stand with you!
Empty cupboards
We stand with you!
No roof over your head
We stand with you!
Being driven to suicide
We stand with you!
Scapegoated citizens
We stand with you!

Stand together to know your strength
A thousand whispers make waves
Have no doubt they fear our unity
Stay silent no more!
Make our power known.

A campaign recently launched in Northampton called “Kill with Kindness” (yes that is its real name), has the aim of encouraging people not to be kind to homeless people.

It declares that homeless people are drunks and drug addicts and by giving them money you are therefore feeding their habits and killing them.

It declares that you should instead give your money to charity which has already been butchered in this county, maybe its time the council supported its services properly, so we didn’t have to prop them up!

This campaign is dehumanising, demonising and degrading and feeds into the myth that homeless people are to blame for their situation.

Not all homeless people are drunks, and not all of them are drug addicts and any campaign which starts off with this assumption is very insulting and damaging.

Instead of attacking the powerless, vulnerable and poor, they should run a campaign that tackles the root causes. Why not have a campaign called “help the homeless” or “home the homeless” – why run a campaign that sends the message that homeless are undeserving of kindness?

This campaign takes place within a backdrop of our county council butchering its services, meaning more adults are going to be vulnerable, and ultimately thrown on the scrapheap.

When are they going to tackle the underlying problems and come up with proper solutions to these problems? Homelessness, addiction – they take away our support network and then have the cheek to say we’re less than human (not worthy of kindness).

Social housing programs are few and far between not only in Northampton but the whole country, social enterprises and charities have had their funding cut and removed by local government, meaning less services and support for the homeless.

Homeless people are wait for it – people too. If a homeless person spends a couple of quid on alcohol, then who are we stop them? Would it be better if they drunk a bottle of wine a day?

What are the underlying causes of homelessness addiction? I don’t think the cause of these problems are created by the kindness of strangers, or by homeless people getting a few quid begging.

More than likely the causes of these problems relate to where they find themselves I.e on the streets, mental health related, there are a myriad of reasons why a homeless person may drink but one thing we can be certain of it definitely isn’t kindness that is killing them.